KANDAHAR AIRFIELD – Insurgents targeted the governor of Kandahar province last week to demonstrate the vulnerabilities of the government, says battle group commander Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh.
“The insurgents, because of our presence, are looking to continually discredit the government,” says Walsh, of 1 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Edmonton.
Walsh says the Taliban are threatened by the governor and the district leader because they represent the controlling influence of a responsible government over the people. This is a role the insurgents want to control.
Tooryalai Wesa an Afghan-Canadian academic, who lived in Coquitlam, B.C., and returned to Kandahar province last year to accept the post, was on his way to a mosque for prayers Friday when a roadside bomb detonated as his three-car convoy passed through the centre of Kandahar City.
Wesa was unharmed and continued on his way.
One police officer was hurt.
In their earliest days the Taliban did not state any interest in power of governance, says Walsh. Within two years, however, the objective became clear.
“They expanded their objectives from merely providing protection, security and justice to the people, to control of government institutions and of course supplanting any government that was in place at the time.
“So that's why they made an attempt on his life and they made an attempt on the district leader's life in the past as well, and on many of the district leaders.”
